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But like youngsters his age, he attends classes five days a week and spends time watching TV and playing video games - albeit in a secure common room with surveillance cameras.

Gingerich landed in the facility after killing a 15-year-old friend's stepfather, who they had feared might
stop them from going on a trip out west.

Killers: Gingerich (left) was sentenced to 25 years for conspiracy to commit murder. With Colt Lundy (right), then 15, he shot dead Lundy's stepfather who they feared would not let them run away to Arizona

He and another 12-year-old friend
discussed who was going to commit the crime with the older boy, and
Gingerich eventually said he would - but later told police he did not
think he actually would.

Along with the
15-year-old boy, Colt Lundy, he fired at Phil Danner, who died after being shot four times. Gingerich had closed his eyes when he pulled the
trigger.

That night, the three boys stole
Danner's car and started driving towards Arizona. But when they stopped
for gas, they met a policeman who was suspicious they were out alone -
and they admitted to the killing.

When Gingerich and Colt were sentenced to 25 years each, Colt was sent to the 'youthful
offender wing' at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, a
prison home to 2,000 male inmates.

But corrections officers refrained
from sending the younger boy there, fearing his 80-pound frame would
become an easy target. Instead he was sent to Pendleton Juvenile.

Isolated: The boy, now 14, sleeps on a mattress on a concrete block and is surrounded by razor-sharp wire

Making the most of it: He is doing well in the facility, becoming a straight A student and jumping a grade

There, he is surrounded by 300
youngsters - none of whom is older than 21 - who have committed murder,
rape, drug offense and property crimes. At Wabash, he would be surrounded by thousands of grown men guilty of much more physical, violent offenses.

While the youngster escaped a fate his partner in crime did not, it appears he has made the most of his opportunity - perhaps aware that he could be sent to the adults' prison at any time.

He is a straight A student and was recently moved up a grade as eighth-grade classes were not challenging him enough.

He sits on the student council, hopes to achieve Scouting credits, is an avid reader and spends time shooting hoops with other youngsters.

'He is one of my best students,' health and physical education teacher Mark Hargett told the Star.

'He does what I ask. He is one of the first guys done, and he's always willing to help. Basically, around here, he's what I call a model student.'

Good behaviour could cut his 25-year sentence in half - yet he would still face time in Wabash.

Child: The Indiana Court of Appeals is considering revisiting the case as it has been claimed that Gingerich, pictured in 2010, was not mature enough to understand the proceedings of an adult court

At the same time as celebrating his 14th birthday earlier this month, Gingerich was celebrating news from the Indiana Court of Appeals, which said it will consider revisiting his case because of how he was sentenced.

Gingerich's case was moved into an adult court - made possible by Indiana's laws which make it possible for a child as young as ten to be tried as an adult.

Gingerich was 12 and two months when he murdered his friend's stepfather, and a psychologist claimed he was too young to understand the proceedings of an adult court to stand trial there.

While the defense claimed the boy was bullied into murder by the older youth, Judge ex Reed found them both equally guilty. He said: 'Phil Danner is dead. Phil Danner was, regardless of what we call this crime, murdered.'

Indianapolis attorney Monica Foster, who has defended some of the state's most high-profile killers, is supporting Gingerich's plea.

Carefree: Gingerich, who will be sent to an adult prison before he turns 21, said he wishes he had just gone home the day he discussed killing the man with two friends in a park

'I would like to have him treated as the 12-year, two-month-old person that he was, which is a kid,' Foster told Indystar.com. 'I don't think he was competent to stand trial. I don't think he was competent to plead guilty.'

She added that defense attorneys are usually allowed two to four months to build an argument for why a client's case should stay in the juvenile courts, but Gingerich's were given four days.

'He's the most innocent kid I've ever seen in my entire life,' she added of Gingerich, who had no criminal record before the murder.

When the Star asked Gingerich if he ever thinks about his chances of freedom, the young killer paused and responded: 'Sometimes'.

And, when asked what he might have done differently two years ago, he added: 'Yeah, I think about it sometimes. I think I should have gone home.'